We woke to sunshine this morning which was nice.
After breakfast I packed up our picnic and off we set to the most northerly place on the South Island, Farewell Cape and Spit.
We drove through the area that was flooded on Sunday and it is all getting back to normal. The road we had to go on goes over a mountain range, Takaka Hill, and is the only road to that part of the country, Golden Bay, Abel Tasman National Park. Last year, due to a major slip they were cut off for quite some time and on Sunday there had been many slips so a lot of work was being carried out on the road today.
The road goes up very, very high and is narrow with some sheer drops to the side - my side! I was gripping my seat and my hands were very sweaty.
We stopped at two lookouts and the views were lovely. Back to the car and we had to go down the other side which was just as scary. I was very relieved when we got down, I have never seen so many hairpin bends and never seen a sign telling you to go down to just 15km to get round!
We stopped in the town of Takaka for a much needed loo break and a strong coffee and I think a brandy might have been nice.
We continued on and finally reached Farewell Cape about lunchtime. We walked up to the lookout through fields of sheep and the view was beautiful, very high cliffs green field with lovely rock arches in the cliffs down below but no way of getting down there as it was so dangerous.
We had lunch back at the car and then went to see where the spit was. I thought it was only a spit and expected it to be quite flat and was pleasantly surprised to see the cape, too.
We found the road to the spit and drove to the information centre. You are only allowed to go onto the first 4 km of it or go on the Eco tour which is six and a half hours and we just didn't have the time for that. I was happy just to see it without going the full distanc to the end which must be about 30km
Back in the car we had a bit of a shower but not much. We stopped in to Collingwood, a small seaside town, and bought an ice cream.
The pictures I have seen of beaches here in Golden Bay are really lovely but there are no roads to them and you can only get to them by boat or water taxi and we didn't have the time - again!
I can see why it is such a popular holiday destination for Kiwis as it is lovely and especially when the sun s shinning.
We stopped in at a couple of beaches to take photos on our way back.
The road over the hill was just as scary on the way back!
We got back and had a cup of tea and watched the news.
I cooked dinner again tonight, pork chops with apples. I found some lovely Cox Pippin yesterday. This is the second largest apple growing area after Hawkes Bay and the shops sell lots of varieties that we don't get up north.
We watched TV after dinner, we will be more than ready to get the ferry tomorrow and really look forward to getting back.
The forecast is good for tomorrow so hopefully a calm, sunny crossing.
WEATHER
Sunny with a few showered 20 degrees
No comments:
Post a Comment